Victoria Zdrok (full name Victoria Nika Zelenetskaya) was born on March 3, 1973 in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) . The daughter of a photojournalist and a university professor, Victoria chafed against the repressive Soviet system as she was growing up.

Biography and Career :

At the age of 9, she demonstrated her defiance by destroying part of her school uniform during a state-sponsored ceremony at her school. While this left a black mark on her record, Victoria Zdrok persevered in her studies and eventually made headlines when she became, at age 16, the first Soviet teenager to come to the United States as part of an exchange program. Her 1989 trip came about thanks as much, no doubt, to glasnost as to her excellent grades.

Victoria Zdrok was eager to take

advantage of her historic opportunity, and she quickly graduated from Pensacola Junior College at age 17. In order to stay in America, she married an Alexander Zdrok in October of 1990.Apparently, the marriage quickly went sour. Alexander Zdrok was disbarred by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1991 for forgery and deception. He was abusive to Victoria Zdrok, once being arrested and jailed. There were purported threats from her husband's Mafia connections. In 1996, now 23 years old, Victoria Zdrok sought a divorce. By this time, Victoria Zdrok was a sought-after model. To get the divorce and end the abuse, Victoria Zdrok was compelled to sign under threat of injury and death, without having her own attorney, a Marital Settlement Agreement in which she agreed to pay her ex-husband 15% of all her future earnings from "pictorials, television, national and international films" and related ventures for ten years after their divorce.

While she was married with Alexander Zdrok began studies at Pennsylvania's West Chester University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree at age 18, graduating with a 3.96 GPA.
Her academic efforts paid off, and Victoria was accepted into a highly competitive joint law/psychology doctorate program hosted by Villanova University and Hahnemann Medical School.

Victoria Zdrok Is Pet of the Year :

Victoria Zdrok's academic career was put on hold in October of 1994, when she became Playboy's Playmate of the Month. This wouldn't be a one-time event; Victoria Zdrok went on to appear in dozens of Playboy foreign editions, special editions and catalogs. In spite of the regular shoots, Victoria Zdrok never quite felt at home in the Hugh Hefner's world.

Victoria Zdrok - A Penthouse Pet :

In 2002, Victoria Zdrok ditched Playboy for good, becoming a Penthouse Pet instead. In doing so, Victoria Zdrok became only the second woman, after Linn Thomas, to land both titles. In June of 2003, Victoria Zdrok reached another milestone, earning her Ph.D. in clinical psychology after 11 years of hard work.

Victoria Zdrok Becomes Dr. Zdork :

Victoria Zdrok's achievements were overshadowed the following year, when she found herself caught up in a nasty court battle with her ex-husband over their 1996 divorce settlement. He claimed that she was under-representing her earnings; she countered that she had been pressured into their former agreement, and that her website was losing money due to Internet piracy. The case was settled when an in-court settlement was enforced.

Even in the midst of her legal turmoil, not everything was going badly for Victoria Zdrok. She was chosen as 2004's Penthouse Pet of the Year, and went on tour to promote the magazine. Victoria Zdrok also became an author, putting her psychological expertise to work in writing The Anatomy of Pleasure: The Head to Toe Guide to Better Sex. Victoria continues to live in and work out of New York.